"The anti-Tajik theme in some Russian mass media has of late struck a new note and is becoming polemics around the doing of service by nationals of the Republic of Tajikistan in the Russian border troops and in the 201st Russian motor rifle division stationed in the territory of Tajikistan", reads the note of the Tajik Foreign Ministry, sent to the Russian embassy in Dushanbe.
The text, which has come to hand at RIA Novosti, specifies that some Russian media, looking into the problem of narcotics, have laid the blame for drug traffic on nationals of Tajikistan doing service in the 201st division and the Russian border troops in Tajikistan.
"The Tajik side considers such ungrounded accusations against the Republic of Tajikistan and its nationals as premeditated provocative actions by definite forces purposefully conducting the anti-Tajik campaign through the Russian media, repeatedly drawn attention to by the Tajik side. Their goal is to sow mistrust between servicemen-nationals of the Republic of Tajikistan and the Russian Federation, doing joint service in the 201 motor rifle division and the Russian border troops in Tajikistan", the note reads.
In keeping with the intergovernmental agreement, beginning in 2005 the protection of the Tajik-Afghan border will wholly be shouldered by the frontier service of Tajikistan and the Russian border guards will be withdrawn to their home country. The 201st division will turn into a permanent Russian military base. Russian military experts has hurried to call catastrophe the future withdrawal of the Russian border guards, the result of which will be a sharp rise in drug traffic from adjacent Afghanistan.
